Frome, Joan, AHC 272

NW: In 1938, there was the Anschluss. How was your time spent during the Anschluss?

JF: I was in the house. I was…my parents would not let me out. I had to only go shopping early in the morning, I was only allowed to go at six in the morning, for one hour, and bought a few things for my family. And after that I was not let out.

NW: And your whole family stayed in--

JF: --no, my other family could go out, because they were gentiles. That was the terrible part. Living on the same floor. Except my uncles, and my cousin…my uncles had two gentile grandparents. And they were married to non-Jews. My mother was married to a Jew. I had three Jewish grandparents. My cousin had one, my grandfather. So after I came back from shopping, she went off. And she never talked to me.

NW: They did not--

JF: --they stopped talking to me.

NW: So there was no support from this other part of the family?

JF: Very little. I had one aunt, who was very good to us. She did not let anything come between. But the others were kind of afraid, because it was a thread to their safety. And they lived through the entire period and war in Vienna.

NW: Were there cousins in your age?

JF: One cousin. She is still there. I have cut off my communication with her. I could not face her ever again. It is hard to believe, is it not? You were not anywhere at that time, but it is…it was a very impossible period. It is hard to even talk about it, because it is so incredibly inhuman, that people could be that way.

NW: And it is very special for your family, as being…cut in two parts.

JF: Cut. On the same floor we lived.

NW: Can you remember your…how did you leave Austria? You went by train?

JF: How did I leave Austria? I left Austria by train. I went through Cologne, and then I went to Belgium.

NW: This was in September 1939?

JF: September, yes. I went to Antwerp. And there I got stuck. I had four dollars they gave me in Vienna. That is all I was allowed to take out. And I got to Belgium, and there was a strike, I could not leave for the United States, and I had to live in Belgium. Then I went to a Jewish organization, the HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] and they helped me with food, because…it was crazy: the shipping line I had a ticket with put me up in a room for about ten days, in Antwerp during the strike, but they would not feed me. I think, I had no money to eat, and I had a few choices there, but I did not take them, so I went to the HIAS, and I think I had lunch at the HIAS, and then I had dinner at the hotel. I was sixteen, I want you to know. I did not know very much about life. But I did that.

NW: To Austria: Do you still feel connected to Austria in a way?

JF: Not at all. If I had a connection, it was until I came back to Austria, and tried to make some connection when I walked into that building of ours, where I spent my whole childhood, and just saw an empty building. With people who totally ignored me, and there was nothing. And I found it totally…just another place.

NW: So you would say you have an American identity now?

JF: I think so. If I do not have it, I would like to have it. But I do not have an Austrian identity. The only time I feel bad is if I read things about Austria that upset me, and I will say to my husband: “You see, that is where I come from.” When I see something that is despicable that happens. When I read about [Kurt] Waldheim, and when I read about certain things, then I say: “I mean, really!” But I put myself away from this. Entirely. I find it…I guess it is a kind of defense mechanism.